Haiti, The Government-Run Narco State

“For whose entertainment shall we sing our agony? To the destroyers, aspiring to extinguish us, reveling in their own fantastic success? The last imbecile to dream such dreams is dead, killed by the saviors of his dreams.” –Ayi Kwei Armah, Two Thousand Season

Haiti, The Government-Run Narco State

By Joel Leon, March 12, 2018

The notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar, was elected in 1982 “as an alternate member of Colombia’s Congress”. In 1984, he was forced to resign after two years because of his direct involvement in drug production and smuggling to the United States. The Ronald Reagan administration pressured the Colombian president, Luis Carlos Garlan, to prevent Escobar from sitting in the parliament.

In 1989, the US Marine invaded Panama to capture Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former Panamanian strongman, and flew him to Miami based on a 1988 indictment for drug smuggling and money laundering. He spent 17 years in prison in the United States. Later, he was jailed in France in 2010 before being extradited to his own country Panama. He died there of cancer on May 29, 2017.

In 2004, another coup d’état took place in Haiti, which toppled the duly elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide from power. The United States, via the DEA, imprisoned many disgraced Haitian officials in Miami. Among them were a Haitian police’s general director, a senator, and former president Aristide’s chief bodyguard. All of them were convicted of drug trafficking.

In 2011, Hillary and Bill Clinton, without regard for the law or decency, installed Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly to power as president of Haiti. The latter is a well-known drug dealer and consumer. He shared more than the name “Sweet Mickey” with the late army lieutenant colonel, police chief, and Fort Bragg graduate, Joseph Michel “Sweet Mickey” Francois, a subsequently indicted drug smuggler and one of the main authors of the bloody first U.S-backed regime change (Sept. 30, 1991) that overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In an interview with the New York Times, Martelly admitted being a cocaine user, and elsewhere he spoke about being a thief and crackhead. It is also noteworthy to highlight that he continues to be the spiritual leader of the PHTK ruling party, also known as “bandit légal” (legal bandit). Since 2011, the Haitian national palace has become a paradise for drug dealers, arms traffickers, and other human right violators.

In that same vein, Jacques Bedouin Kétant was arrested in Haiti in 2003. He was rapidly transferred to the United States to face drug accusations. A judge found him guilty of sending more than 30 kilos of cocaine to the states and sentenced him to 27 years in prison. On August 18, 2015, the US judicial system decided to deport Jacques Kétant back to Haiti after serving half of his previously scheduled prison term because the court found him to be very cooperative. Upon his return to Haiti, Mr. Kétant was picked up at the capital airport by two important individuals: Roro Nelson and Gracia Delva. Mr. Nelson is former president Michel Martelly’s closest and longtime friend; some people believed that he was there to welcome Mr. Kétant as per Mr. Martelly’s order. Similarly, Mr. Gracia Delva, a seating senator, a deportee from the United States was also present at the airport to greet the convicted drug kingpin. Delva went as far to admit that his friend Jacques Kétant had given him a very expensive car. Here is a partial list of ex-president Martelly’s and current president Moise’s closest allies who are notorious for their criminal activities:

-Guy Philippe, elected senator (or selected as senator for others) but couldn’t take the oath because he was arrested by Haitian police and DEA agents. He was quickly transferred to the United States and soon pronounced guilty of money laundering drug monies. He is now serving a 9-year jail sentence in the U.S. Mr. Philippe and president Jovenel Moise waged their political campaign together.

-Hervé Fourcand: actual Haitian senator; he is implicated in many drug and arms trafficking in Haiti. For instance, when the so-called Leonard Désir was arrested in possession of 20 kilos of cocaine, he testified that the drug belonged to the senator who owns a private jet believed to be used for drug smuggling all over the country.

-Youri Latortue, also a senator, has been involved in drug activities, according to Wikileaks’ documents.

-Joseph Lambert, the current president of the Haiti Senate and actual president of the Haiti National Assembly is also the incriminated President Jovenel Moise’s close ally and one of former president Michel Martelly’s advisers. He has similarly been accused of having high-level connections with drug dealers and has been involved in other criminal activities;

-Senator Willot Joseph has been implicated in drug trafficking.

The Haitian Senate is a sanctuary for drug dealers and criminals. This article is presenting a small tip of the iceberg in terms of drug trafficking activities condoned by the actual Haitian government and its acolytes. The most troubling element of the puzzle is that the United States is aware of all those wrongdoings but has decided to turn a blind eye to everything.

President Jovenel Moïse was put in power last year (2017) by ex-president Michel Martelly via a fraudulent election, endorsed by the US/UN/NGO occupational forces. He had run a 2-year campaign that cost millions of dollars. Many suspected that drug money was involved in the process. Mr. Moïse had been indicted for money laundering just days before he took the oath as president. The justice department stopped the process because the constitution of the land doesn’t permit to prosecute a president in office; he is enjoying the sacred immunity for 5-years.

In 2010, it was well-documented, by many national electoral council members, that the Clintons (Bill and Hillary), under the Obama administration, outmaneuvered Ms. Myrlande Manigat to impose Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly as president of Haiti. The former individual is a university professor in Haiti and abroad. She completed her studies at the Sorbonne, the oldest and most prestigious university in France. Why did the Clintons inflict such a horrific pain on a country they have pretended to love so much? Putting such a despised being as Martelly in power was the last blow to Haiti’s prestige.

Nowadays, the country is totally at the mercy of drug dealers, arms traffickers and corrupt leaders (aka the “Legal Bandits“) who have stolen and diverted an estimated $4 billion in US dollars. Impunity reigns supreme in this land directly occupied by US-led United Nations forces since 2004. With such high-level back-up, no one is talking; fear rules in Haiti. Haitian institutions are permeated in a terrible and repressive silence; freedom of speech and plain survival is replaced or tempered by a mafia code of silence – the cosa nostra’s “Omerta Law“. Poverty and organized crime have struck out a big number of honest citizens who are forced to seek refuge and survival from the reigning repression and totalitarianism in other countries, such as Chile, Brazil, Mexico. Haiti is in total despair. No light can be seen at the end of the tunnel.

I have talked to some prominent Haitians in the diaspora and in Haiti who have thusly summarized and point to US responsibility in Haiti’s quagmire: “they broke it, they own it”. They believe that Washington has created the situation. Therefore, it has the moral responsibility to support the people’s efforts to regain their sovereignty in the interest of the rule of law and peaceful co-existence.

In Haiti, it has been rumored that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is on the ground. Former president Joseph Martelly and his son, Olivier Martelly, would be among the targets. Nobody has either confirmed or denied these allegations. Tension runs high and the panic is palpable among the lawmakers and oligarchs engaged in corruption who may already be the subjects of sealed DEA indictments just as Guy Philippe was since 2005 but not arrested in Haiti by the DEA until 2017. The country is waiting!

The presidency is influenced directly by well-connected drug dealers. The Parliament is heavily ruled by active gun and drug traffickers. The legal system is the hands of gangsters and the wealthy but repugnant billionaires of the Caribbean.

What Pablo Escobar failed to achieve in Colombia for more than thirty years, a mercenary clan operating in Haiti has achieved. Haiti is arguably the only narco-state in the world run directly by a US-led United Nations humanitarian front.